Corporate Social Responsibility And Ethical Issues In Importing Toys From Chinese Manufacturers

Rationale

Corporations importing toys from manufacturers in China, given the discovery of lead in some toy products produced in that country.

The report is prepared to discuss about the corporate social responsibilities and ethical issues that may arise due to the importing of toys manufactured in China with the use of lead. It is found that the China toy manufacturing companies have been using lead and other harmful substances during the production of toys, which can be harmful for the children and create certain health related issues. The impact on stakeholders and their roles will be demonstrated here along with the ethical issues that may emerge. Due to the discovery of lead in some of the toys manufactured in China, there have been ethical issues considering its negative impact on the heath of young individuals as well as violating the rules, laws and regulations regarding the corporate social responsibility. Corporate social responsibility means the various initiatives undertaken by the company to assess the roles and responsibilities and carry out those properly to create positive impact on the environment and promote social wellbeing. The efforts done by the company can help to protect the environment and manage the corporate social responsibilities properly too for sustaining within the competitive business environment. Mattel is one of the most popular toy manufacturers in Canada, which has managed to import toys from the manufacturers in China and there are evidences that discovered the presence of lead in some of the toy products produced in China. This is a major CSR and ethical issue that hinders the rules and regulations regarding the health and wellbeing of the children and people within the community.

The ethics of the issues involved the use of various methods of ethical reasoning including the utility, rights and justice. The various methods will not only help in determining the ethics related to the current issues faced by the toy manufacturing companies in Canada, but may also lead to deterioration of sales revenue in business. The costs and benefits are to be considered for analyzing the ethics of the issues and ensure that the three methods and techniques are managed properly to evaluate the ethics of relevant issues. The methods of ethical reasoning are utilitarian, rights and justice, which have been useful for analyzing the cost, benefits, receiving the share and distributing the profit and loss equally. The costs are mainly incurred while importing the toys from manufacturers in China, which resulted in finding out the presence of lead in some of the toy products. Getting the right toy products that cannot create any harm to people and the environment is considered as a major right of the individuals in Canada while the justice represents following the legal requirements and becoming ethical in the business operations. This is mainly done for ensuring that the children are provided with quality toys that cannot harm them dye to the presence of some kinds of harmful chemicals or substances that may affect the environment as well.  

Impacts

It was found that few of the major toy manufacturing and production companies in China were the sources of causing alarm among the consumers, parents and the regulators. Various researches were conducted, which showed that the toys were supplied all over the world, among which, Canada is also involved. The toys imported from the manufacturers in China were found to be coated with lead paint that could be harmful and even damage the brain cells of children who play with those frequently. A ghoulish eyeball was also found made of lead in the toys, which contained kerosene while the lead paint coating over few of the toys might be the cause of choking hazards and wrist injury among the infants. Therefore, to maintain the rights and utilities, the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission in Canada checked the supplied toys to make sure that the toys should be safe and might not be the cause of any kinds of harms for the children. The toy recalls created new demands for the enforcement of safety by United States regulators and importers and even for the Government and industry in China. Several laws, rules and regulations show that the toys are to be manufactured in such a way that it is environment friendly and do not create any impact on the environment as well as create harmful health effects for the children. The toy trains and pieces of railroads are made for the RC2 at plants for providing better control over the safety and quality of toys made there. China is mostly responsible for the manufacturing and production of 60 percent of the product recalls when compared with the production output in the previous years.

The toys manufactured and produced could create harmful effects on the family and even on the children due to the presence of lead coating on the toys. The impacts could be both direct and indirect. The direct impacts would be on the health of individuals like skin irritation and even might result in choking related hazards. The indirect impacts could be the damaging the brain cells and even causing memory loss, which might even deteriorate the health condition of individuals who bought the toys from the company.

Corporate social responsibilities mean creating a positive impact on the environment as well as fulfilling the roles and responsibilities of people in Canada properly. The importation of hazardous toys and lead coated materials has created ethical issues and even deteriorated the brand image and name. During the past years, there have been increased sales of toys for the Chinese toy manufacturing companies, nearly more than 15 million toys. There are various lawsuits and regulatory actions that have been undertaken to make sure that the toys are safe and of good quality to ensure that the brand image and reputation does not get damaged. The ethical issues surrounding the importation of these lead covered toys are the excessive use of lead to the surface points of the toys and even using some small magnets in the toys. It can be harmful because the children in families can be subjected to harm due to choking or even swallowing the small detachable magnets while the presence of lead can affect the brain during their early childhood days. It can get complicated with time and the children may even face mental problems during the later years. The swallowing and getting choked by the magnet can be direct impacts while the presence of lead when comes in contact with the children, will create problems slowly, i.e., indirectly and start damaging the brain cells.

Impacts

The harmful effects are mainly caused by the presence of lead and detachable magnets present in the toys. It is a major ethical issue, as the toy manufactures must make sure to deliver good quality and safe toys. In case, the harmful effects emerge while playing with the toys, the brand image and reputation of many companies will likely get deteriorated and the sales revenue could get lowered down as well.  From various researches it had been found that the ethical situations arise while managing the design of product and during the management of processes of manufacturing and production related to the contractors and sub-contractors in China. The ethical obligations, laws and rules of the companies are different for the different situations and this has lead to various problems regarding the supply chain management too in the states of Canada. Thus, the importing activities have also been affected, which can even degrade the sales and profit level for the toy manufacturing companies in China. Children within the community would put toys in their mouth and get the lead poisoning and become ill. Most of the children do not have the same safety standards and their parents may not be present around them, which can make them ignore the situation. The toy manufacturing companies were affected and criticized for their wrong doings regarding the purchase of paints from the specific vendors. There may also be poor choice of toy manufacturers and cannot think about the children putting the toys in their mouth. The lead present their will affect their brain cells and can even result in severe health related issues. It is also important to test and check the presence of lead prior to the selling. The companies focused on saving more money, which should not have been done, keeping in mind the ill effects that might be caused due to the toys containing harmful lead. Not only the people within the community were affected, but also the presence of lead in the toys created some negative impacts on the environment. The manufacturing and production processes used a lot of energy and resources and even produced wastes. There are legal laws, rules and regulations that govern how the toy manufacturing companies in China should limit the emissions and at the same time, make sure to maintain the safety standards by limiting the usage of lead on the toys. The ethical concerns affected the corporate approaches undertaken by these toy manufacturing companies in China and even lead to environmental degradation, furthermore increased the generation of wastes and created imbalance in the nature and environment.

The employers of the organization in Canada do have some legal and ethical responsibilities to make sure that the workers check the products properly that are imported from China and ensure maintaining the safety standards. To meet both the legal and ethical challenges, it is important for the corporate bodies to follow the detailed policies implemented by the Government and ensure that the employees abide by those to maintain the quality and safety standards, before the toys are to be delivered to the clients. The safety of products is government by legislation and the ethical issues mean that the products should be tested for the safety and quality. various aspects should be tested to reduce exposure to law suits and ensure that the ethical duties, roles and responsibilities are fulfilled properly. The toy companies in Canada suffered huge toys as the imported toys from China were not bought by the customers and the sales revenue started falling gradually. The community gets affected with many children falling ill due to the lead poisoning while the corporate sectors faced huge amounts of loss with the selling of toys gradually being reduced from time to time.

With the ethical and corporate social responsibility issues, the company sales’ decreased and many of these suffered huge losses. People started gaining negative mindset and the purchases  of toys decreased to a large extent. Corporate social responsibility means contributing some benefits to the society and at the same time, make sure to protect the environment. Due to the lea coating in the toys, the health of many children were affected and this made them not purchase the toys that are imported from China. The impacts were created on both the community and the corporate sectors. with the quality and safety standards not met, the toy manufacturing companies faced loss in business and the companies run through loss. The importing from the Chinese toy manufacturing companies were stopped, which prevented trade relations and even resulted in affecting the growth in economy of China as well as Canada, where the products have been exported. The businesses faced huge loss while the society was affected where many children fall ill and even were subjected to harm while swallowing the toys consisting of the lead coating. The toy manufacturing industry contributes well to the economy of Canada and with the ethical issues that arose related to the presence of lead coating in the toys, the sales have decreased and even the parents of children have stopped purchasing any toy products that have been manufactured in China. Not only does the toy companies in China is affected, but also the growth in economy of the country has been affected. The market shares have fallen. which has lead to higher prices of products and decline of sales and profit level for the companies too. The trade relations between China and Canada has deteriorated and the import and export activities have stopped too. This is how the ethical and CSR issues have impacted the society and businesses in Canada.

Conclusion

The report was prepared to discuss about the ethical and corporate issues that had affected the businesses and importing activities. The business organizations used to import toys from the manufacturers at China. Many popular companies delivered these toys to the clients and it was found that the lead coating caused damage to the brain cells and resulted in serious health related issues for the children in Canada. This was a major ethical and CSR issue, which not only deteriorated the brand image and reputation of many companies, but also reduces the sales revenue largely. The society, businesses and the communities in Canada were highly affected and it even prevented trade relations with China. The Chinese toy manufacturing companies focused on saving money and with the use of lead coating, the safety standards were not met, which made the corporations not following the legal obligations properly and even not maintaining the quality and safety standards. It had always been important to test the products at first and deliver those properly, so that any negative effects on the health of children could be prevented and the businesses function properly too by managing the CSR and ethical obligations effectively.

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